Growing Destinations
Your go-to source for insightful discussions on destination development. The Growing Destinations podcast delves into the strategies, challenges, and successes that drive community growth. Each episode features in-depth conversations with local and national experts, uncovering universal themes and innovative practices that can be applied to any city or region.
Growing Destinations
The Great Race Makes a Stop in Rochester, Minnesota
Today, we’re going on a journey with Houston Gibson, race organizer of The Great Race, a legendary cross-country rally featuring vintage vehicles and classic Americana. Since 1983, this time-speed-distance rally has brought drivers and spectators together for a one-of-a-kind road adventure.
This year, The Great Race made a stop in Rochester, Minnesota. In this episode, Houston discusses the event’s rich history, its lasting appeal, the impact it has on host communities, and how he got involved.
The Growing Destinations podcast is brought to you by Experience Rochester. Learn more about Minnesota's third largest city, which is home to Mayo Clinic and features wonderful recreational and entertainment opportunities, by visiting experiencerochestermncom.
Speaker 2:The term Great Race Family gets used all the time because it is Actually. I've got a competitor out here who has been doing this every race since 1983. I mean the bonds and the relationships you have with somebody like that after that many years. I've got a lot of people that do it for a long time. And then the other cool thing is to see how the teams form. This is a family affair.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Growing Destinations podcast, where we take a deep dive into destination development and focus on a wide range of topics from tourism and entertainment to economic development and entrepreneurism and much more. I'm your host, bill Von Bank. Today we're going on a journey with Houston Gibson race organizer of the Great Race, a legendary cross-country rally featuring vintage vehicles and classic Americana rally featuring vintage vehicles and classic Americana. Since 1983, this time-speed distance rally has brought drivers and spectators together for a one-of-a-kind road adventure. This year, the great race made a stop in Rochester, minnesota, and we chatted with Houston about the event's rich history, its lasting appeal, the impact it has on host communities and how he got involved. Houston Gibson, welcome to the Growing Destinations podcast.
Speaker 2:Hey, bill, I really appreciate you having me on. It is a pleasure to be here with you today.
Speaker 1:Well, we're recording this as cars are rolling in. I've seen dozens of them come in, including a 1913 Chevrolet Pretty fascinating man.
Speaker 2:I am so impressed to see that car out on the road, especially on a warm day like today. Those guys lined up at back to the 50s weekend this morning In.
Speaker 1:St Paul.
Speaker 2:And just powered through and made it here to Rochester. So they're killing it today.
Speaker 1:Well, let's talk about this great race and give us the history and the origin story of it, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Okay, so the great race actually started back in 1983. And it's been going on. It's actually kind of like loosely based on like the movie. If you've ever seen the movie from back in the 60s, I mean, it's a stacked cast of a lot of really great famous actors and it is based on the original great race from New York to Paris I believe 1908, that the Thomas Flyer won back then, and so it's just kind of evolution of that, and so it's really been going across the country here in the US since 1983. Of that, and so it's really been going across the country here in the U? S since 1983.
Speaker 2:So how does it work? So what is this? It's a time speed endurance rally. So what these guys are doing is you've got a driver and a navigator that are going to be in a vintage car that is 1974 and older, open to any brand, any make, european, whatever you have, and you're you're handed a detailed packet of instructions each day, 30 minutes before your official start time, and these cars are going to be staggered and start one minute apart for usually about a two hour span of time.
Speaker 2:So you're going to get these instructions real quick and you're going to filter through and you're going to kind of mark up stuff that you think, oh, I need to make sure I keep an eye on this. Like these are the highlight things that I need to keep an eye on to kind of prepare mentally for what's ahead, because you don't know the route. It's all absolutely a secret until that 30-minute window before we leave or before you leave for your official start. So you go through and do that, and so the navigator is prepping for that. They're getting their stopwatch all dialed in, we have an official race clock that they all set to and your driver's going off and filling the car up and making sure it's full of oil and the cooling is good and just topping everything off, and then you guys are ready to hit the road at your exact start time.
Speaker 1:St Paul was the start, so 30 minutes before they left St Paul they got the route or they got some directions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now what I can tell you is the official start goes a little different, because for those of you that have been to Back to the 50s weekend, it is a madhouse of people over there so it's not exactly like that on the first day, but now that we're on the road and we've made it here to Rochester tomorrow morning, that's how it'll go is the official start is eight o'clock, so they will be handed that packet the first person, car number one, at seven 30. And they'll like say they'll have their 30 minute window to prepare and then then they're off and it's a race of one. Like you, you're really just competing, you know. Just you, like you and your team, are running your own race. Yeah, you're trying to stay on time. You're trying to make sure you follow all the instructions, that you don't miss any signs.
Speaker 2:It's got some challenging elements to it. It is extremely impressive what these guys can do. So it's not about who gets to one spot first, absolutely not. We actually have a couple different divisions and brackets that run within that have a bearing on where your start position is for the day, and then, like I say, when you get that, you're just running your own race and then it's tabulated. And so what you'll see out back here right now is, as the cars come in the final checkpoints have already wired back in what the scores were, and so they're handing them their score sheets as they're pulling in, so they know how they've done for the day as soon as they hit the back gate out here. Okay, so you get a lot of excitement, enthusiasm, and then some people have had some tough days, so you miss the turn. It can kind of throw your day off a little bit.
Speaker 1:You said it started back in 1983. Give us the evolution to today.
Speaker 2:So it actually let's see. So it's been partnered with Coker Tire Company since we'll say, I believe, 2010. So in between Coker Tire and Hemings, which is the title sponsor of the event, hemings and Coker Tire have been partnered since then to pull off this fantastic event that's running across the country and it's just grown from what probably used to be about 50 or 60 cars and today I've probably got about 124 pulling in here to the Mayo Civic Center. So the interest has grown to where now we actually cap it. Ideally, we're about 125 cars is our ideal amount of people to for the way the system is set up. That's what we're really set up to accommodate. Well, prize money? Oh, absolutely so we actually give away a total purse of $160,000.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's impressive.
Speaker 2:So the first place winner which will be awarded in Irmo, south Carolina, here later on this coming Sunday as not tomorrow but actually a week from week out so this is day one for us that the winner will get $50,000. We have the big giant check and I've got the confetti and it is an incredible celebration, excitement, just the enthusiasm going on. It is a fantastic time.
Speaker 1:If I read the map right, there's 10 states involved, correct, correct? Oh yeah, I think about this from community engagement and community and economic development that happens just with a race like this. Can you share some, some impact that a race like this has on a community?
Speaker 2:oh, absolutely it's a booster for sure for your economy. So pretty much our overnight stops, like we're doing here in rochester this evening, we we're going to take 300 hotel rooms. Um, I've got 500 people total. That's in the entourage. So about half of that is competitors driver, navigator, that kind of stuff and then we also have a lot of them will bring support crews along. So I've got a lot of trucks and trailers with extra parts for, hopefully, anything that's going to come about, they can fix it here in the parking lot and be back on the course in the morning. Hopefully, anything that's going to come about, they can fix it here in the parking lot and be back on the course in the morning. And then we have a staff of 50 that kind of help work with me here to just pull off the events, whether they're checking the checkpoints out on the back roads, they're here selling t-shirts, they're parking cars, putting up inflatable arches. We have an incredible team that helps us pull this off.
Speaker 1:What keeps people drivers and fans alike coming back year after year for something like this?
Speaker 2:oh man, the. It's almost hard to describe it until you experience it. This is a, a community of a family, the. The term great race family gets used all the time because it is. I actually I've got a competitor out here who has been doing this every race since 1983. I mean the, the bonds and the relationships you have with somebody like that after that many years. I've got a lot of people that do it for a long time. And then the other cool thing is to see how the teams form. This is a family affair. I've got some fantastic mother-daughter teams in their classic Mustang that come in here and drive across the country Cousins from out in the Fargo area. Just so many cool people adventures to have with your family?
Speaker 1:How do you see younger generations engaging with the event?
Speaker 2:That's a super cool element of this bill actually. So we run an entire division called the X-Cup and what this is is. This is high school and college kids that are going to be between, basically by the time you get your permit. So I'm going to say most of them are going to be between the age of 15 and 21. And we allot 10 spaces that the great race contributes to them. There's no entry fee for them to get them invested in this.
Speaker 2:So I've got a lot of community colleges, a lot of great museums, like Al's head up in Maine, that formed these teams from their local communities. Get these kids invested in the car, in their wrench and working on it, getting it ready to have out here, and then I've got Coker tire coming along to partner with them and they give them all a free set of tires. So the community is really all about investing in it. We do an auction for them. On the opening night we raised, I think, $40,000 that this family here threw in to help get more people engaged in it and get more next generation car people.
Speaker 1:How do cities like Rochester, minnesota, get chosen as host stops and what goes into preparing a city for race day?
Speaker 2:So we usually work about a year or two in advance. For example, look, we've got great friends at MSRA. They were excellent partners for us for this morning, for the launch of this, and so we start out usually with our start and finish cities, and then we kind of fill in in between and so I'm going to reach out to great folks like we have here in rochester and say, hey, we've got this super cool event. We'd love to come to your town. You know, we got a. It'll be a very exciting time for the community.
Speaker 1:We would love to partner with you guys and pull this off, and it just kind of forms out from there and I understand that your stop in rochester is a bit unique because you're actually parking the cars inside and you normally don't do that, and you know what? We're having one of the hottest days of summer so far.
Speaker 2:So it worked out pretty good for you. Oh, absolutely, I will tell you, when we were planning this, I was like oh man, like you know, minnesota will be one of the cooler stops of the race, not expecting a record heat day. So I can tell you, as the staff, we are super pleased that we had organized this to be indoors and our racers are absolutely loving it.
Speaker 1:How about a little bit about you? What first drew you to the Great Race?
Speaker 2:So I'm actually based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which is where the Great Race is based from, and so I started about 12 years ago working for the Coker Tire Company, which is one of the partners of the race. I used to handle the international market for those guys and then this position opened up to be the second ever full-time employee of the great race and I was like, absolutely, this has got my name all over it. Like all the people that I get to deal with out here I mean the international friends that I even make from this. I've got teams from Japan, from Australia, from the UK. It's just so cool to be able to help foster this environment and be a part of these memories.
Speaker 1:What do you enjoy most about your role in putting this massive event together? It's staged really well.
Speaker 2:I would say right now like we're down to the moment of truth here. So when I see the things that I've been working on all year long to come to fruition and we get to actually see the plans come together that we talked about and brainstormed and try to make it the best that we could To see that all come together is absolutely the most exciting part of what I do.
Speaker 1:And organizing a cross-country rally must come with plenty of surprises, any standout stories from the road.
Speaker 2:One time I had a lunch stop in a super rural part of the country and I mean, we're not they, they didn't have subways around, really like we're talking rural, uh countryside and I get there and they were ready for me, except for they had given the caterer the wrong day.
Speaker 2:oh, no, and so I was in a bit of a scramble, like, uh, what are we gonna have for lunch today, you know? So luckily they were fantastic and they just divide and conquered the volunteer staff and they brought in pizzas and chicken sandwiches. We had like a full I guess you'd say smorgasbord of just all the great food and the racers ended up loving it and it was one of the best stops of the entire race. But it's just one of those things that you didn't. You know.
Speaker 1:You plan but things happen, let's look at the past races and any memorable milestones or historic moments that you can think of.
Speaker 2:One of the really neat ones is in the past we've actually I think it was about 12 years ago we did Route 66 and went all the way to the Santa Monica Pier and we actually parked the race cars on the Santa Monica Pier which is, I would say, a nearly impossible feat today, but just super cool.
Speaker 2:I mean, we've done the Lincoln Highway, it's been all over. I think we've hit All the lower 48 states by this point. We're big fans of becoming big fans of the northern states with the cool temperatures, except in Minnesota this year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a horse stride. So this year the route is from Minnesota to South Carolina. Do you have next year's route and the year after that? I mean, how far out do you plan?
Speaker 2:Well, usually we try to be a good 18 months to two years out. So the exciting thing is is we're actually going back to Route 66 next year. So we'll be starting in Springfield, illinois, I guess mid-June of 2026. And we will be making our way to Pasadena. Now, route 66 is kind of the backdrop, as you know, like there's sections of it that aren't really a deal anymore and so a lot of the competition may actually go off of that. But we're going to try to hit a lot of the iconic locations from Illinois all the way to California.
Speaker 1:What keeps your passion going for an event like this?
Speaker 2:I think meeting new people, having great conversations and everybody kind of joining around the love of the car hobby, it really just energizes you so much when you see all the shared interest and the love for what's going on.
Speaker 1:Well, it's fun to see that today and it's really fun to see all of the residents of Rochester show up and many of them just with their phones, just going at it full bore, just constantly just taking pictures and video of all these cars coming through. It's really cool.
Speaker 2:We are very excited to see them coming out here. It's a great community involvement, so we are very pleased to be here.
Speaker 1:Houston Gibson, it's been wonderful to have you join us today and share some insights into the great race. Thank you for being our guest on the Growing Destinations podcast.
Speaker 2:Absolutely my pleasure. Bill, Thanks for having me on today.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in to the Growing Destinations podcast and don't forget to subscribe. This podcast is brought to you by Experience Rochester. Find out more about Rochester, Minnesota, and its growing arts and culture scene, its international culinary flavors and award-winning craft beer by visiting experiencerochestermncom.
